Wireless charging was a key feature of Samsung's flagship Android blower when it was announced, but the replacement back plate it needs isn't on the shelves yet, so one brave soul has hacked a Palm Touchstone charger into the S3 case.
Not that the hack uses the Samsung/Qualcomm-backed "Alliance for Wireless Power" standard, …

I was kinda disapoint..

Just wait for the nutters to start popping out of the woodwork complaining that the energy from these charger devices is causing them headaches, nausea, dizziness, and other weird and wonderful psychosomatic symptoms. Next you'll have them campaigning for them to be made child-proof, such as no charger to be allowed in primary schools 'cause their "waves" can propogate through things so they must be able to travel some distance and into young kids heads.

Ohh, I just thought of a nice line in protective headgear for these people. Just hand me my coat, it's the one with the tin foil in it.

Also done on the Nokia N9

wireless misnomer

yes it is technically wireless as there is no wire between the phone and the stone, but with it having to actually be connected/touching it is hardly an 'untethered' charging solution.

chances are the mat has a wire going to it, and the pad is just the touchpoint like how tehcnically its a USB connector not a wire that goes into your current phone, the mat just replaces the USB connector...

So is my current phone wirelessly charging?

infact if you look here on the RHS and scroll down, you can see where the charging wire connects to the Pre inductive block...

Re: wireless misnomer

The difference is, Instead of come home, find end of USB cable, try plugging it into phone, turn the usb connector around and try again (why do USB connectors not have an easy to see orientation? just a slight variation in the shape), you just come home and put phone on the stand/mat. No fiddling around with the USB cable.

It's not a big difference, but it's enough to make it a desirable feature.

"so it wasnt an issue putting it in any particular way.."

It is a surprisingly wonderful feature

IMHO one of the best features of the Palm phones & HP Touchpad is their support of inductive charging. It is SO handy to just drop the phone on the stand, lean the touchpad on it's stand (which then turns it into a photo frame or news feed display) and never fidget with a USB connector again.

It really is surprisingly valuable - grab your phone 40X a day, never ever fiddle with a cable (ok, once)

Car Kits

I would have thought wireless charging was better aimed at car kits/cradles for phones. Phones in cars are increasingly being used as SAT NAVs, replacing the TomTom etc. Navigating using your phone, keeping that screen on takes a lot of power and the last thing you want when you get to your destination is have an almost flat battery in your phone.

So jump in the car, slide the phone in the slide holder, too me ages to find one, not have to worry about routing usb cables and plugging it in, as a permanent feature in your car you took time to route the charging cable so just the charging point shows. If its magnetic you don't need a holder!

Re: It's been done.

Re: It's been done.

this different in a lot of ways. my electric toothbrush charger uses around 1W of power whether or not it's charging (it's actually slightly more when not charging). The battery on the toothbrush takes over 12 hours to fully charge. Part of the charger fits around the toothbrush.

The wireless power we're talking about here could (in the future) be built in to your coffee/bedside table, your desk, your car dashboard. Placing your phone on or near any of these surfaces would activate the charging circuit charging up your phone without you needing to worry about where you put the cable.

Of course, until it is built in to existing surfaces it's actually worse than just plugging in a cable since the charging unit takes up more space. If that wasn't the case then desktop chargers would be popular.